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Ao 2014, nm. 2 |

Viento y trapo

Intelligence and Elegance: Tall Ship Sea School Visits Culebra

By Mary Ann Lucking - Director CORALations Culebra, PR The tall ship SSV Corwith Cramer paid a visit to Culebra. This is a 134 foot long steel brigantine, was constructed in Spain in 1987 for service as one of two ocean-going research vessels operated by the Sea Education Association (SEA) of Woods Hole, MA. CORALations science partners from Ithaca College commissioned the vessel, overnighting on Culebra to visit the coral farms. We learned that en route, the students and faculty were engaged in shipboard activities, including watches, sail handling and scientic data collection. It seems that the New York land-lubbers took a few days to get their sea legs, but all got to take the helm, with some manning in winds that healed the ships gunnels in the water. One student was asked how she felt, while piloting the impressive vessel through the heavy seas. With an exhilarated smile, she replied This is great at home, my parents dont even let me drive the car! Captain Beth Doxsee welcomed the Culebra Eco Schools Exploradores Marinos for a tour of the vessel and its oceanographic monitoring equipment. As our dinghy approached the vessel, the crew shouted: toss up the painter, for it to be made fast.Upon boarding we half expected to be handed brushes and varnish, when Chief Scientist, Dr. Amy Siuda greeted us and took us for a tour. The ships laboratory cabin was busy with students. The walls of the lab were lined with tubing, lters and a large stainless steel sink, where water samples can be taken in for analysis when underway. Sophisticated electronics displayed the location and composition of the sea oor, and a small aquarium was available to lodge the occasional eccentric aquatic visitor for observation. Schools of small lights darted over the shelves of notebooks, terminals and students, reected by a disco ball suspended from the ceiling. On deck, Dr. Siuda showed us a sturdy rig of two and a half foot long metal water quality sampling bottles. This rosette, as they called it, is lowered by cable and winch and programmed to open and collect at varying depths. The rig is attached to a port side crane. The heavy rig must be quickly and carefully lifted, swung out and lowered, so as not to become victim to the same winds that power the vessel. SEA is now embarking on an astounding 40 years of ocean plastics analysis, taken from daily plankton tows. The plastics news in the Atlantic was disturbing. While levels of small ocean plastics are no longer increasing, the scientists believe this is because they are being taken in by ocean wildlife. The SSV Corwith Cramer now enjoys San Juan Harbor as her Caribbean Port of Call, and we hope to see more of her in the waters of Culebra and Vieques.

SSV Corwith Cramer Wikipedia